2011 F1 season review

Williams have fallen into F1’s vicious cycle – one which has claimed other teams before.

Poor performance leads to falling sponsorship revenues which restricts development leading to worsening performance.

They reached a new low in 2011 as they fell three places in the constructors’ championship, only finishing ahead of the three teams that first appeared last year. Where does this once-great F1 team go from here?

Williams responded quickly to their desperate start to 2011. Technical director Sam Michael and chief aerodynamicist Jon Tomlinson were earmarked for replacement in May and have since found places at McLaren and Toro Rosso respectively. In a seismic move, Williams stalwart Patrick Head will also step back from his F1 duties and work elsewhere within the company.

In their places has come the controversial appointment of Mike Coughlan – a central figure in the ‘Spygate’ scandal four years ago. In addition to that, next year Williams will have access to the world championship-winning Renault engine, replacing the Cosworth power it has used for the last two seasons.

Williams team stats 2011

Best race result (number)

9 (2)

Best grid position (number)

7 (1)

Non-finishes (mechanical/other)

10 (7/3)

Laps completed (% of total)

1,923 (84.86%)

Laps led (% of total)

0 (0%)

Championship position (2010)

9th (6th)

Championship points (2010)

5 (69)

Pit stop performance ranking

7th

Williams hopes for 2012 are invested in a car which must be both quicker and more reliable than the FW33. The aggressive rear packaging of the car with its low gearbox and driveshaft proved problematic.

The car had seven race-ending malfunctions during the season – several of which were due to transmission problems – and suffered repeated KERS failures.

When the car did see the end of a race it was rarely quick enough to reach the points. A Williams finished on the lead lap just six times in 38 starts.

Rubens Barrichello gave the team its first points of the year in Monaco, inheriting ninth place after rookie team mate Pastor Maldonado retired following a collision with Lewis Hamilton.

Barrichello finished in the same place in the following race at Montreal, calling on his vast experience in a very wet race. Those were his only two visits to the top ten all season.

Maldonado added his first and only point in F1 so far in the Belgian Grand Prix – a race he was fortunate to start after another run-in with Hamilton. Maldonado, who had lost time being passed by the McLaren at the final corner on his last lap, drove up alongside Hamilton’s car and made contact in a move somewhere between intentional contact and sheer carelessness.

The team has already announced it will retain Maldonado to drive the Coughlan-designed, Renault-powered FW34. But whether he has someone sufficiently experienced and capable alongside him, or Williams have to plump for another well-heeled driver, will signal whether they are continuing their alarming tailspin.

ha! Bernie Shekelstone and Max were bailing these “monkeys at the back” as Lewis likes to call them, since the early 2000s…..at least from 02 to 09!!! Max even bent the interpretation of the rules about the double diffuser to suit some teams and not others, and Wallys was 1 of the favoured teams, but they still couldnt do anything with such an advantage in 09!! They been going downhill since 94!!….i mean seriously, how do you recover from that?!

I was being a smidge sarcastic. They obviously have had a down turn but i would say that was 2003 onwards. Before that they were doing just as well as mclaren this year and you wouldn’t say they are failures.

Although Williams do still have all the latest technology and infrastructure needed to compete at the top. They have said they know why the 2011 car didn’t work and wasn’t fast and they know how to rectify this for the new 2012 car.

They are one step ahead of the grid in gearbox design now, if they can design a car that gives good downforce and get over the gearbox teething problems, they could easily pick up plenty of points, especialy if other teams copy the williams gearbox and have the same hurdles to overcome.

Williams are a team who even with their season this year, it’s entirely possible they could win races next year. So long as maldonado doesn’t take his team m8 out. They have everything they need to make a winning car.

I help you hoping (or praying – with that name @the-last-pope!) you are right there.

But Ferrari told us during the last winter they knew where it went wrong as well, but instead their car was further off the pace than it had been last year, the same goes for Mercedes. And its not as if Williams itself didn’t say the same in the past.

Makes you wonder about the abilities of companies to keep up with the times. Not just in motorsports but business as well.
What is the mistake, not keeping pace with the latest great idea? Hiring, or retaining the talent? etc.?
But once that edge is lost seems like it is almost impossiible to regain it.

Just think, 15 years ago today. Williams had just won yet another championship with Damon Hill. They had won 4 of the last 5 constructors championships and their Williams-Renault combination looked set to dominate further into the future as well.

The FW33 was a disaster, I can’t see it getting any worse for them unless they close shop completely. It must be frustrating for Frank to think of ALL the money he wasted on that car. He could have just bought a few concrete blocks, strapped them to the sidepods of the FW32 and got the same results this year.

I’m predicting a Sutil to Williams announcement tomorrow morning or the day after. Just thought I’d throw that out there, it seems more talk has arisen today, whether it’s credible or not I’m not sure.

Williams are a former great but beyond romanticism and concern for the jobs of everyone in the team, I wouldn’t be sad to see them go. Others have gone before them: Tyrrell, Brabham, the original Team Lotus, going further back you have teams like BRM who bit the dust. There’s a saying that time waits for no man, well F1 waits for no team. Renault briefly took Williams’ place at in the big 3 with McLaren and Ferrari, now Red Bull are there. One day it may be Mercedes again, or someone entirely new.

Sad for the fans but if there’s one thing worse than a historic name dropping out, it’s watching them struggle. This year Williams looked like a team that needed to be put out of their misery. I just hope that if the fall comes, they get bought out and someone can carry it on under a different name, like the loss of Jordan.

@Steph@Icthyes Yep. Well put. This game is all about the money and there is no way Williams can compete with the constructora and Red Bull. It is sad, they’re like the old man of the grid, there is little energy to them.

Yeah well… Williams is a team i really like because of how they operate, and i’ve said this over a fair few times at this blog. It makes me really sad to know that a team like Williams is having to struggle as they are. I sincerely wish them luck…

@the-last-pope – People feel that, based on his 2010 performances, Petrov did not “deserve” to drive a car as good as the Renault R30. They think he “robbed” someone more deserving (Nick Heidfeld being the driver most often cited) of a competitive car, and that putting Petrov in it was a waste of a seat. They also tend to resent the way he was openly a pay driver, conveniently ignoring the way half the grid have personal sponsors these days.

I think what Williams need to do is forget about their “aggressive approach”. They’ve been peddling it for years now, and all it has done for them is amke them consistently inconsistent. When the FW33 was launched, some of Sam Michael’s comments gave me the distinct impression than elements of the car – like the microscopic gearbox – had been designed because they were “aggressive” rather than because they made the car faster. Williams should be looking at what the front-running teams were doing this year, and borrow inspiration from them. It might stifle creativity, but “creativity” led to their worst season in history. I’m expecting that the FW34 will take cues from the McLaren MP-4/26 and Red Bull RB7. It’s a safe, conservative strategy that will let their drivers perform and maybe get them back on-track. Because another season like 2011 might kill them for good.

I think though it would be a mistake to revert back to a conventional gearbox. I’m sure we will see other teams attemping their own lowline gearboxes. Williams now need to evolve their mechanical side to build in better reliability, and just fix their aerodynamic problems. I believe the removal of the blown diffusers will make things much simpler for them and they can concentrate more on “flexing” front wings.

@the-last-pope – I have no problem with the miniscule gearbox. I’m simply saying that I think the root of Williams’ problems is the way the team has been talking up their “aggressive design philosophy” for the past few years, and they only thing they have gotten from it is a few seasons of consistent inconsistency before rounding it off with their worst-ever season. They need to give up on this “aggressive” approach, because it clearly isn’t working – and sometimes, it feels like they’re emphasising this “aggression” rather than actually building a decent car. They seem to have gotten it into their heads that “aggression” equals speed, and it’s taken them years to work out that this is not the case.